It is approaching four years in duration (started on February 24, 2022) and Russia has not been able to demonstrate the theoretical superiority of its army on the battlefield.
What the Russian president believed would be an armed conflict lasting just a few days or weeks has turned into an long fight in which the progress on the part of the forces are Russian quite limited.
Throughout these almost four years of war, the Kremlin has allocated a large amount of military and economic resources to fight against Ukraine and has lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Analysts have expressed surprise that despite this complicated situation for Russia, the country has refused to deploy one of its best battle tanks on Ukrainian territory.
Too expensive weapons
As stated in early 2024 Russia reported that the T-14 Armata tank would not be sent to the war in Ukraine because it was a weapon too expensive.
The official Russian explanation is that, in order to fight on Ukrainian territory, it would be more convenient allocate that money to the acquisition of another class of combat tanks: the T-90 tanks.
This justification is not sufficient for the British analystsfor whom it is a whole surprise that the Russian army has refused to take to the battlefield one of its most “prestigious” weapons systems.
“Outperforms existing tanks in terms of functionality”
Specifically, the general director of the Russian state company Rostec, Sergey Chemezovrecognized in March 2024 that although the T-14 Armata tank “significantly surpasses existing tanks in terms of functionality”it is a very expensive battle tank, so It is preferable to use that money to acquire a greater number of other tanks.
According to Western estimates, the cost of each T-14 Armata tank unit is between 5 and 9 million dollars (approximately between 4.3 and 7.7 million eurosat the current exchange rate).
